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Doris Valeria Ashview
Personality/Appearance "Who am I? Oh, my little darlings, you are very new here. I am Doris Valeria Ashview, Keeper of Elysium by his majesty's grace and goodwill. As such, I am also an Honorable Guardian of New Albion and shall become your worst nightmare should you abuse our hospitality." The smile, while brilliant and charming, is utterly devoid of anything like pleasant warmth. It is like looking at a tigress showing her teeth. Doris is 5’2”, with dark brownish hair that is auburn when the light strikes it in just the right way. There is a splash of silver at her right temple, which she makes a point of showing off. Fair-skinned before she was Embraced, the transition from life to unlife has simply made her porcelain skin even more delicately translucent. Under a spotlight or if she is holding still she looks like an extremely cleverly constructed doll, not a hair out of place or a smudge in her makeup and her ¾ scale figure symmetrical to the casual glance (a more careful observation reveals the tiny flaws that make her interesting – her left cheekbone is less prominent than her right; the pale freckles on her ever-so-slightly crooked nose). Painted and pretty and so clearly harmless. Something so curvaceous and small and seemingly delicate simply cannot be a threat. The casual observer is wrong, of course. Five Tropes * Lady of Black Magic * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask * Team Mom * Lady and Knight * Enlightened Self Interest As herself: * Disapproving Look * The Chanteuse Spawn Table * She can be found at The Blue Devil Piano Bar between 10p and 2a Wednesdays through Sundays * Between sunset and 10p Wednesday through Friday she is often at work at the Office of the Director of HR * Monday and Tuesday nights she is at the Artaud Theater teaching voice lessons until 11p. After that, she will spawn at the Office of the Director of HR, the Blue Devil or the Green Lion Coffee House History Early March, 2018... The city on the edges of the Texas wilderness reminded her of Las Vegas: a fairytale city wrought of light and noise, beckoning the adventurous to try their luck in her streets. She heard it almost the same breath as she saw it, glittering against the darkness. She smoothed her green cocktail dress over her hips, threw back her shoulders, and crossed the boundary between the outlying scattering of homes and the heart of the city. Her heels tapped out a staccato against the still-flawless sidewalk. By instinct she threaded her way to the entertainment district, stopping occasionally to tip her head as if listening to something or someone only she could hear. Eventually, she found the right place. A pool of streetlight outside a theater, just outside the glare of the marquee. That was where she needed to announce herself. So, with the hauteur of an empress, she drew herself up in her impromptu spotlight and began to sing. No amplification, no microphone, just the power of her presence and her gift. The notes soared above the cacophony of traffic and people, creating a pool of stillness that spread further and further as more people were enraptured by her performance. "Masquerade! Paper faces on parade…/Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you. /Masquerade! Every face a different shade. /Masquerade! Look around, there's another mask behind you. /Masquerade! Burning glances, turning heads. /Masquerade! Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you. /Masquerade! Grinning yellows, Spinning reds. /Masquerade! Take your fill, let the spectacle astound you." Perhaps a bit mocking, partially a challenge. Certainly a statement. The smoky alto shaded the lyrics with a plurality of meanings. When she finished, she spread her stole on the pavement in front of her in the manner of buskers everywhere. Then, with half of a laugh in her voice and dry amusement in her tone at the assembly, she asked if there were any requests. As they were called out, she sang them; snatches of songs from every era and genre, from video games to bubblegum pop to funk and Motown and old school jazz. She stood there, an inhumanly pitch-perfect jukebox, sliding from song to song as effortlessly as a falcon soars. Money pattered down on the fox fur spread at her feet. She scanned the crowd, looking for the one person not transfixed, not playing the game. The man her flagrant abuse of power was meant to call to her. A Siren does not share the spotlight. If this bold Ventrue was as bold as they said, he would be unable to resist trying to take it from her. He would fail...but he could try. There was no man. No sign of him. Instead, there was a sea of adoring faces, stretched out endlessly in every direction. She would, for a single moment, find herself terribly alone. And then... A light. The entire side of a pillar of steel and glass illuminated in a single burst, silhouetting a figure. Though mortal eyes would only see the vaguest outline of a strict posture, a supernatural view could glint something more. His eyes. They were blue. Terribly, terribly blue. He motioned with two fingers, and the building fell to darkness again. Already she could see a closed door open. A sign illuminated itself. "BON VIVANT STUDIOS: WHERE DREAMS ARE REALITY" Really...what a flair for the dramatic. But, a summons was a summons, no matter how melodramatic. She shrugged imperceptibly and gathered a hint of the evening's shadows around her, a fragment of chill from the land beyond the glittering fairyland of glass and light. The crowd began to disperse as she came to the end of her last song. As the shadows pressed more thickly around the pool of light and the last echoes of her voice died away, they moved more quickly. Time to be somewhere else. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. I am Doris Ashview and I should be performing nightly at a club near you within the week." Because she was a pragmatist, she gathered up her earnings. Because she was terribly, terribly vain, she shook out the stole before wrapping it around her shoulders. Then, with the same elegance of a vintage starlet or an exceptionally expensive whore, she clicked her way across the street towards the light and towards whatever the Song had in store for her. Sheet ;Staff Note: Doris' stats are somewhat outside the scope of standard rules, owing to her being a plot-driver and setting NPC. ;Attributes : Physical: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2 : Social: Charisma 6, Manipulation 4, Appearance 3 : Mental: Perception 6, Intelligence 3, Wits 4 ;Abilities : Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Brawl 1, Empathy 4, Expression 3, Intimidation 2, Leadership 3, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 3 : Skills: Animal Ken 1, Etiquette 4, Firearms 2, Melee 3, Performance 5 (Effective 8), Stealth 2 : Knowledges: Academics 3, Computer 1, Investigation 1, Occult 1, Politics 3, Expert Knowledges: Latin 3, French 3, German 3, Irish Gaelic 3, Romanian 1 ;Advantages :Virtues: Conscience 4, Courage 3, Self Control 4 :Disciplines: Dementation 4, Fortitude 3, Melpominee 8, Presence 2, Quietus 1 :Humanity: 7 :Backgrounds: Generation 3, Haven 4 :Willpower: 10 :Merits: Code of Honor (2), Supernatural Aria (1), Soaring Octaves (3) :Flaws: Derangement (2), Eerie Presence (1), Hard of Hearing (2), Short Fuse (2) Specialties Talents ;Empathy (Bullshit Detector): Don't even try. Skills ;Etiquette (High Society): She knows the dress code. All of it. ;Performance (Singing): She's damn good. Techniques ;Will to Survive:If you have any damage in your Injured wound track, you automatically regenerate 1 point of normal damage each turn without spending Blood. If you have no remaining normal damage, but still have aggravated damage in your Injured wound track, Will to Survive heals 1 point of aggravated damage every three turns. Will to Survive heals a character during the everyman round; this power has no effect during Celerity rounds. Will to Survive ceases to function if you have no Blood in your Blood pool or no wounds in the Injured wound track. Will to Survive does not require you to expend an action or Blood. ;Banshee's Wail:Spend 1 Blood and expend a standard action to mark a willing target with your Banshee’s Wail. The next time your target suffers damage, this power activates, and the individual who caused damage to your target is affected by Voice of Madness as though you had used that power. If you succeed in your Voice of Madness challenge, that target gains a fear based derangement with the original target of Banshee’s Wail as the trigger. If Banshee’s Wail is not triggered before sunrise, it fades away. You cannot have more than one application of this power in effect at any one time. ;Echo Psychosis: Any time someone spends a point of Willpower to ignore your Awe, you can reflexively target her with Passion on the same initiative. If you have Majesty and a character attempts to break your Majesty and fails, you can immediately target her with the Haunting. To successfully use Passion and the Haunting with Echo Psychosis, you must make all of the appropriate challenges, but you are not required to spend Blood or use an action to activate those. Elder Powers *Melpominee: Shattering Crescendo Merits & Flaws Merits: ;Code of Honor: Doris will not outright lie. Ever. Even to mortals. She also very much believes in Libertas and will do everthing in her power to ensure this core Anarch concept is upheld. ;Supernatural Aria:Your potential maximum level of the Performance: Singing skill is increased by 3, and you pay half the XP cost to purchase Performance: Singing. ;Soaring Octaves:You can use Entrancement on any character listening to you sing. ;Skill Aptitude: Performance: Singing Flaws: ;Derangement: Complex PTSD (Domestic violence) ;Derangement: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria ;Derangement: Major Depressive Disorder ;Derangement: Sensory Processing Disorder ;Eerie Presence: She bears an uncanny resemblance to Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite muse and painter. To anyone who is not an art major, there is the unpleasant sensation that they have seen her somewhere before.This gives her what can only be called an Aura of Competence: because people are certain they know her from somewhere, they are inclined to do what she says or seek her out if they are in need of guidance. ;Hard of Hearing: She is prone to her actual clan's weakness and is thus situationally deaf. Too much noise overall and she might as well have earplugs in. (Sensory processing disorder) ;Short Fuse: It burns slowly. Don't test it. Relationships *Balcésar: "I wonder what might cause an artist to cease creating..." *Lizzy "Miss McCrory is my most valued employee. I would be lost without her." *Marcus "Had I known when we met how important we would become to one another, I might have paid more attention to what was not being said at the time." *Giles "The other half of my heart." *Toliver "I owe him my life." Additional Pictures File:Doris.png|Sass. File:27357560915_b102376bfe_o.png|Smooth. Category:Officers of the Court Category:Toreador Category:Elder Category:NPCs